Britain no longer strongest industrial
nation at the end of 19th Century and
facing serious competition from
countries like Germany
Germany's rapid
industrialisation
after 1850s - coal,
iron, chemicals and
railways
Bismarck introduced
measures and laws - Accident
Insurance Law: giving
compensation to workers
when ill or injured
Germany's introduction of a
welfare benefits and OAP system
may have influenced a shift in
attitudes in Britain
Believed that if health/education
standards of workers continued
to worsen in Britain, her position
as a strong, industrial power
would be threatened
Churchill voiced concern
that part of the problem
of the economic
depression was the
unemploymed were
unaware of where to find
new jobs.
This was an example of inefficiency
which weakened Britain's industrial
output
Labour exchanges (similar to the modern Job Centre) were opened for the
first time by the Liberals in order to minimise the period in which a worker
was unemployed
Social Research
end of 19th Century investigations revealed
the true and, for the mostpart, unsuspected
levels of poverty in Britain
These proved that
poverty had problems
which were, at this
point, beyond control
Charles Boothe - a London Businessman - doubted
the claims of socialists that 1/4 of the population
lived in extreme poverty
1889 - he bublished is shocking results as 'Labour and Life of
the People.' which highlighted that 35% of LDNs population
were living in extreme poverty which was much worse than
socialists claims
Seebohm Rowntree was
inspired by Boothe's work -
decided to compare poverty
levels across Britian to those in
London
Published 'Poverty, A Study of Town Life'
-1901: revealed that almost 30% of York
Population lived in extreme poverty
Rowntree defined poverty very
closely and drew up a 'poverty
line' which was the least amount
of money which a family was
able to survive on
DLG, president of Board of
Trade, met Rowntree in
1907 and the two became
close friends- Rowntree
now had support in
Parliament
Both Reports provided politicians
with evidence to suggest that no
matter what people did and how
hard they tried, they were still
unable to lift themselves out of
poverty, highlighting the need for
help from their Government
However The Gov was not
particularly focused on
addressing the social research
which had taken place and did
not appear as one of the most
pressing concernes for the new
Lib Gov.
Municipal Socialism
After Liberal Joseph Chamberlain became
mayor of Birmingham in 1873, he used his
influence in municipal politics in order to
introduce a series of social reforms
Social improvements were
carried out by Local Authorities
and were paid for by a form of
local taxation.
The wealthy contributed most, but
the poor gained the most benefit
from improvements in their local
areas
Public parks were opened to
provide fresh air and relaxation
and libraries were opened to
provide further education
As Birmingham's water was a
danger to public health and
piped water was on supplied 3
days a week, Chamberlain
purchased the water and gas
works and cleaned them of
sewage
Chamberlain left Birmingham "parked, paved, gas and watered and improved."
For the first time, British people
began to stray from the
'Laissez-faire' attitude
However: Although cities
spent money on improving
services, as late as 1886
Glasgow still had 1/3 of its
families living in one
roomed houses
A great deal of people
still believed in
'laissez-faire',
particularly the
wealthy who were not
keen on giving their
money away in order to
help aid the poor or to
benefit anyone living in
small communities
Although the Loval
government made a lot
of communal
improvements, the
national Government did
not take much notice of
this and the politicians
were unlikely to change
their actions due to these
demonstrations
Political Reasons
from 1884, the majority of
w/c males had the right to
vote, and most votes tended
to go to the Liberal party
By 1906, The Labour
Party was gaining more
popularity and
strengthening in support,
attracting w/c voters due
to their demands for
welfare reform
'New Liberalism' had come to
light by 1906, which was an
incentive for the liberal
reforms
David Lloyd George, Churchill and Asquith were new
Liberal politicians who began to argue that in British
society there were particular issues which required state
intervention
It seemed that without
these new Liberal
politicians who were
prepared to do something
in order to ease British
poverty, little, to none,
changed would have
occured at this time in
Britain.
Therefore, it could be argued that the issue
of poverty could no longer be overlooked
due to the existence of Liberal politicians
who had government power.
However, there were very few of these 'new liberals'
and their ideas and they themselves were 'new' to the
political scene
Similarly, none of the reform ideas
were included in the 1906 Liberals
manifesto
The reforms were not passed out of
genuine concern for those who lived
in poverty, but rather as a means for
political advantage - the Liberals
simply wished to keep the w/c votes
National Security
The Boer War had a series of
alarming effects on Britain
and highlighted several
issues in British society
Almost 25% of Volunteers for the
British army wer rejected due to
being physically unfit to fight. This
figure was even higher among
those who came from industrial
cities
The question of
whether Britain
could survive a war
and protect her
Empire successfully
was now arising
among the British
Public
An Interdepartmental Committe on
Physical deterioration was created in
order to exam the issue of ill health in
England and Wales, and in Scotland a
Royal Commission did the same task
1904 suggestions about improving diet
and offering free school meals and
medical exams to all children were
made after reports highlighting the
very poor physical condition of many
adult males
The British Government
was well aware of the
growth of Large
European armies,
particularly Germany
who had began to
over-take her in power
However, whether these
effects mounted to a
turning point for British
Politics is debatable